Sorry for the delay in this, it’s not AJ’s fault. I was drinking. – ED

There’s really not much to say about this. The Sox came out and absolutely pasted the O’s Monday night to the point where they were pulling fans from the crowd to pitch. I made the mistake of thinking that all three games would be like that, but forgot that Ivan Nova and Ervin Santana are paid to pitch for this club and (much like the rest of life), you get what you pay for.

Anyways…

-James McCann had four RBIs Monday night, thanks to a mammoth home run to left field on a hanging curve from David Hess. The Jose Abreu of old made an appearance as well, with four RBIs of his own, and a nice opposite field dinger onto the porch in right field. If the Sox are going to give Abreu a contract extension past this season, we’re gonna have to see a lot more of stuff like that.

-Monday night also featured the starting debut of Manny Banuelos. He went a solid five innings and kept the meager O’s lineup in check, and really with this rotation that’s all you can ask for, especially after watching Ivan Nova night 2. Everything that Banuelos did well, Nova did the exact opposite. Nearly every pitch was hit hard, and it seemed like even pop flies had triple digit exit velocity. Add the fact that the Brewers signed Gio Gonzales for pennies on the dollar, making this performance for $2 million more than he’s getting even more insulting.

-Not that Nova got any help from the offense. One meager run against triple reclamation project Andrew Cashner and his arsenal of two pitches. Moncada, Tim Anderson and Abreu went 4-11 and stranded 1 runner. Everyone else went 2-20 and left 15 people on base and god dammit just looking at this box score makes me furious.

-Ervin Santana was just kind of there. The O’s jumped on him early for 4 quick runs, and by the time he settled in the damage was already done. The Sox treated rookie John Means’ changeup like it was a gyroball from another dimension, staring at it apparently blinked in and out of this reality. Although to be fair, expecting any different results from a lineup that has James McCann hitting cleanup is probably an exercise in futility.

-It’s not even May yet, and I’m starting to lose faith in the rebuild. This is the season where we’re supposed to see marginal improvement. Granted Anderson and Moncada have been pretty otherworldly, and Eloy will eventually turn into a Sun Crusher but everyone else could be replaced by a folding chair with a hat on it and I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. Every time I watch Nicky Delmonico bat, I want to turn off my TV because I know the outcome. Spoiler Alert: it’s a weak grounder to second base. Yonder Alonso is a giant bag of meh, and Ryan Cordell and Adam Engel are…Ryan Cordell and Adam Engel. Whatever excitement I had watching Timmy and Yoan is fading rapidly, helped along by another 42-pitch inning from Ivan Nova.

Anyways, that’s two terrible teams in a row that the Sox managed to lose a series to, and guess what? They get to play them again starting Friday! Three game series against the Tigers starts Friday, plenty of good seats available! Let me know how it goes, I’ll be at the movie theater seeing Endgame.